U.S. patent publication 2007/0003954 discloses protein and antibody profiling using small molecule microarrays. The application discloses ligands, which bind to ligand binding moieties wherein the ligands are arranged in arrays of synthetic molecules, which are used to screen for biomarkers and molecular fingerprints. The specific arrays described therein include, for example, a peptoid microarray having 7680 different compounds bound to the array. In that disclosure, bead based libraries were utilized as the initial means to make peptoids which were then transferred to microarrays with addressable locations on the microarray to screen biological fluids. The screening results in a unique pattern or molecular fingerprint on the array for any particular protein in a complex biological mixture. U.S. patent application 2010/0303805, hereby incorporated by reference, discloses certain peptoids and diagnostic arrays useful in screening biological fluids for biomarkers associated with central nervous system disorders. The specific monomers disclosed therein utilized to form the arrays therein may also be utilized in the new screening methodology of the present invention provided the libraries are enlarged to a much greater number of beads/peptoids or beads/ligands—e.g., between greater than 100K to 150 MM.
The present inventors have found that significantly larger bead based libraries (relative to microarray based screens for antibody biomarkers or bead based screens for cells) can, under the right conditions, be used to directly screen complex biological samples to find disease associated biomarkers as well as a significantly larger pool of ligands which bind to such ligand-binding moieties. This significantly larger pool includes a significantly improved number of high affinity ligands that serve as diagnostic tools as well as potential therapeutics. This approach also permits a significantly improved screening rate for any particular complex biological fluid because the need to make microarrays or similar addressable support systems is obviated in the first instance. Once the screening is performed, microarrays or other support systems including diagnostic arrays comprising the hits found in the screen may be manufactured and are included within the scope of this invention.